Brand Mix

Two stories yesterday in the Oddly Enough news feed from Reuters reporting on people who have been fired for being off-brand and less than perfect representatives of their organizations.

Emma Clarke, the voice of London's Tube who has been warning underground passengers for years to "Mind the Gap," was dismissed for allegedly saying she doesn't ride the Underground because it's "dreadful." She claims she was misquoted but she's also been adding spoof Tube announcements on her site making fun of Americans, Londoners, sweaty commuters etc.

Sample: "Residents of London are reminded that there are other places in Britain outside your stinking city, and if you remove your heads from your backsides for just a couple of minutes, you may realise the M25 is not the edge of the Earth." Nice.

So, she's gone as is Giovanni Catanzaro, Rome's traffic and parking chief, who was reported parking his car in a no parking zone using a handicapped parking permit that belongs to an 86-year old woman.

We just need an airline chief to be caught riding Amtrak for the trifecta. With airline service the way it is these days, that's not entirely impossible.